Took this photo on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness while doing a little citizen science project.
Every two weeks I go set nine traps for native pollinators. Three each of green, white, and red and then later go collect the bugs and put them in sealed tubes. I doing it for a professor at the University of Oklahoma. It’s all fine and good except my wife is not happy about frozen bugs in our freezer. At the end of next month I send all my data and the bugs to the professor.
A scene on my hike bike to the parking lot. I’ve been experimenting with RAW photography on my cell phone. I use an app called Halide to do it. RAW format photos are lots bigger than jpg files and thus contain lots of information. The visuals of the photos are kind of flat and dull but you can edit them with many phone based apps such as snapseed. I use the phone based photoshop and lightroom. I think it can really add a lot of dimensions to the photo under the right circumstances. I like how the above photo turned out.
As you may know if you have been following me for a while I am impatient with the purist ethic of photography to use no filters or processing. I respect if that is what you want to do, that’s great. Me, I love monkeying around with photos. Many of photos are unprocessed though, I would guess maybe half to two thirds.
Here is an unedited photo of some evening color from my front porch. I love it when my fellow skywatchers take photos from their property.
And here is an unedited photo from my back porch one morning.
And another from the greenbelt in our subdivision.
And yet another from the elementary school where I am a volunteer reading tutor.
On a whim I stopped one day at this park while running errands. It has good fall color scenes in the past and today did not disappoint.
We got some clouds the other day at sunset and the wind dropped so I launched my drone in backyard to see what I could see.
Lip Repair
Last week I attended a “Berm Clinic” on Turkey Mountain. They had an old pro trail builder to teach us how to repair berms and lips on downhill bicycle runs. I don’t ride mountain bikes but I wanted to learn a little bit about this so I could help out on the trail days. We also learned about fixing lips which is what bicyclists use to catch air. The lips need to be sharp edged to get the best results.
I stole this photo from somebody else’s facebook site. There is me in the foreground working on repairing a berm. It was a fun and interesting two hours.
And I have been on a couple hikes on Turkey Mountain the past few weeks. I have so many pics of fall colors.
And I ran in a trail race last sunday that started from the YMCA on the northwest side of Turkey Mountain. When I saw I ran it I mean that I walked it.
Got more photos during the race.
At the end I ate a couple of pancakes at the finish line.
And drank an adult malted beverage. All before 11 am on Sunday morning. I don’t know a better way to start the morning.
And more drive by fall color.
And some more while walking our dog on our neighborhood. I’m never afraid to post sky photos with all sorts of wires in the air. I got the software to eliminate them but rarely do.
So, I’ve been pretty busy the past week. How about you?
I’m done with posting about my travels for now. So these are some sights since I’ve stayed home .
The full, or almost full moon, in late September.
Old rock church in midtown Tulsa. The sanctuary is now abandoned but it is connected to a more modern sanctuary that got taken over by a church from the suburbs. It’s all confusing to me but I love to see buildings including church buildings preserved and repurposed.
This is the nearby sanctuary. Not very new, I’m guessing mid 50’s Mid Century Modern.
I’ve been flying my drone as well especially when we get weather. My little lightweight drone gets blown away by winds so I have to be careful.
I had to be really careful for this shot. A front was moving through so I didn’t get very high at all.
I encountered a glider at a monarch butterfly event. I guess you call these things sail planes now.
Another “weather” shot in our neighborhood green space in September.
So that’s it for this week. I’m linking withSkywatch Friday.
After our visit to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, we drove to the Pensacola pier for lunch and sightseeing.
Beautiful skies, almost too beautiful. We were eating outside and the restaurant asked us to move inside. There were two storms headed toward us.
Both of them missed us but I took photos of the resulting skies. I’m not afraid of rain, I am really afraid of lightning though so I was careful. Hear it fear, see it flee it is my motto.
Nothing like a good storm coming through for energy and clean air.
More skywatch photos from our trip to Orange Beach, Alabama in September
We had great skies almost every day. I loved the mix of clouds and sunshine.
Some of the sights were spectacular
Like lots of condos in the area, the front faced the beach and the back faced the highway. Even those views were not bad.
Went on a bike ride at the Gulf State Park nearby. They had great views as well.
The lakes there are alligator habitat. People were still letting their dogs swim out there.
We went for dinner at nearby Perdido Key, Florida. Our restaurant had great views of the sunset. Everybody was up on their feet with the cell phones just happily snapping away. Me2, I was snapping away with all of them.
The three of us took a late vacation this year. I’m ashamed to say that all the traveling I did by myself was part of that (but I’m not sorry that I did it.) Son is taking college classes but they are online so yep, he can attend school anywhere we have wifi.
So this was the SuperMoon on August 31. Also a blue moon since it was the second full moon of August. I took this the night before we left on vacation. Technically though I am retired I am on a permanent vacation.
We had some decent skies on our drive from Tulsa to the Alabama Gulf Coast. My wife was driving when I took this photo. I used to take photos of her driving but she has gotten pretty good with her backhand so I don’t do those so much any longer.
I love this two story dock at a rest stop in Arkansas. Too bad the dock is closed.
So we spent the night in Jackson, Mississippi on the way down there. No photos there. So we had a short drive to Orange Beach. We stopped at Buc ees on the way to the beach. Oops never again!! It is like a giant gas station paired with a giant Bass Pro with the worst of both. Lines to get in, lines to get out. It looked like a good place to get covid to me. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough. But our condo was nice when got there.
The Gulf of Mexico right at our feet. Going so late in the season meant a lot less people and the temps were very mild and the humidity low. Sign me up!!
Evening sunset was nice.
Here’s Heather out in the water. I love the feel of the ocean, sand, and wind in my face.
And a hand holding romantic shadow selfie. Look how skinny we are.
During some free time that I had in September attending my 50th high school reunion in Albuquerque I made my way down to the Rio Grande River bosque to visit the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park. A bosque is the woodlands and land adjacent to riparian streams and rivers. I’ve only heard the term used in New Mexico. Bosque’s are rich in wildlife and plants and after being neglected for years are now being preserved and restored.
I lived in Albuquerque from 1971 until I graduated from college in 1977. The whole time I lived there I never visited the bosque. Part of the reason is geography. I lived in the northeast heights where it seemed most other so called Anglos lived. The north and south valley of the Rio Grande river was considered kind of rough territory to visit. It all seems kind of ridiculous to me now and I feel bad about missing a great opportunity.
I went to do some hiking a little bit of geocaching and mainly just explore and see what was there. There were several serious bird watchers in the park. You know, they have binoculars, notebooks, and cameras with big lens and they have infinite patience staying in one place for a long time before moving on. Hey I admire them but I am not temperamentally suited for such things. I like moving.
I found me a tiny little nanocache. There were others out there but they were off trail quite a ways and there all sorts of signs asking people to stay on the trails. I didn’t want to be “that guy.”
One could tell that they had used fire or other vegetation clearing method to open up the woods.
These big metal things are Jack Jetties or Kellen Jetties. The Corps of Engineers placed tens of thousands of these things all up and down the river. They are meant to stabilize the banks and keep the river in its channel. They, along with some dams, worked too well. The river never flooded into its floodplain rejuvenating the soil and drowning out invasive species. The Corps has removed many of the jetties and that has heled the bosque revive.
A big bird watching area is this pond right by the visitor center. They had a large hummingbird feeder that rotated over the pond and I’ve never seen so many hummingbirds. I couldn’t get a good angle on the hummingbirds but you can see the Sandia Mountains off far away. You can see them from all parts of town.
My walk took me right by the Rio Grande River a couple times. Here the river is on the far side of this “beach.”
And here, the river is right by the bank.
So I walked and moseyed about three miles and enjoyed myself very much. The park integrates with an extensive walking/biking trail that goes along the river for miles and connects several attractions. I would sure like to return and explore the area some more.
While in South Dakota in early August for a family reunion another place I sneaked off to was Falls Park near downtown Sioux Falls. I love it there. A huge park with lots to see and great photo opportunities. The Big Sioux River runs through the park and makes a bunch of beautiful cascaded water falls.
They are very beautiful.
For a time in the early part of the 20th century the energy of the falls was harnessed to generate electricity. Those days are gone but the old power house has been repurposed to a cafe. I will say it again, I love it when buildings are repurposed espcially when they are as beautiful as this one.
The falls are loud and are mesmerizing.
I climbed the nearby observation tower and took a photo of the one area of the park. Silly me didn’t take a photo of the observation tower.
And I found several geocaches while I was there. (Geocaching is an online treasure seeking game. Check this link to learn more.) I love geocaching.
There was a sculpture called The Farmer there. Farmers do lots of sitting and thinking of course if they want to be successful and of course they got to get up and do things as well.
Me, I’m not much of a farmer. I’m a retired natural gas guy. I just take lots of photos. I have 89,006 on flickr so far. Five or six of them are pretty decent. Not sure about the rest.
While in South Dakota in August for a family reunion, I had a little free time so I went to the nearby Big Sioux Recreation Area near Sioux Falls.
It’s a sizeable state park featuring a lot of different terrain. River bottoms, prairie, forest, valleys and hills.
From a low point in the park to the highest point, where I also hiked.
It has a moderate entrance fee and like it seems everything else in the Midwest, is impeccably maintained.
A small geocache hanging in a tree
I went their for the hiking and geocaching.
I had the place to myself during the weekday that I was there.
The Big Sioux River winds through the park. Tell the truth the Big Sioux River seems to everywhere in my family history. Our family church is near the Big Sioux River and many of my relatives were baptized in it. It runs through Dell Rapids where many of my family live and where the reunion is held. It is one of those long winding rivers that seems to be everywhere.
Something about the wind blowing a cottonwood tree
South Dakota is a surprising state. My vision is that it is flat but for a flat place it has lots of hills and valleys and even mountains and forests. Think Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills.
It has lots of big majestic trees.
And high hills with great views and skiesl
I didn’t spend much time there. Went on a little hike, found a few geocaches and took some photos.
